The stolen moment
by inbid
Summary: "Before the dawn will come to claim our pain again…" M/S missing scene between S1 and S2


It is somehow a missing scene somewhere between S1 and S2. These of you who knows my other stories and Marina's plot can consider this little piece as her genesis.

**NOTE: It can be considered as a bit steamy **

Jasmintell – the day of the spring equinox. Considered also as the first day of spring or summer - depending on the region and valid for it calendar. However everywhere it meant the same - end of the winter. The time of joy. Kind of festival holiday in Baghdad when in the evening the branches of jasmine were being burned and all along with accompaniment of music, dances, feasting. The crew had been invited to take part in the celebration as honorary guests in the palace. It had been supposed to be a kind of recognition for their merits for the homeland and also for recent events in Skull Mountains. The tidings, legends and rumors spread quickly. In a few weeks everyone in Baghdad talked only about that.

It was the late evening. The torches were set in the whole garden and the smoke of burning jasmine was filling the nostrils. People were dancing and singing in the whirl of the music. Prince Casib with his pregnant wife were greeting the guests. The aura of happiness and hope shimmered from the prince's couple. It was their Jasmintell. This spring was coming for them and to them. Like it was going to be their spring.

Watching them Sinbad suddenly got the feeling which he would have never expected from himself. He had always thought that "these things" are for anyone else, but not for him. And then suddenly watching the joy and hope of the royal couple he simply felt upset.

He was jealous.

He envied them that they could be that way. That way happy. That they could share their happiness with the whole world and not to hide their feelings. That they did not need to pay with the pain for the love, for that they had each other.

About a month ago when the griffon egg had exploded, for one tiny moment he had had the hope that something could change it that matter for him, too. But it had not.

The expression on the face of future queen was calm and her eyes were full of hope and full of this sense of being safe. Something he could never find in the brown eyes he loved so. As much as he wanted to give her that feeling, the feeling of being protected with the hope for future, he could not.

Sinbad gulped grimacing at the taste of regret and envy. He looked around but the brown eyes were nowhere to be found in the garden. The intuition led his gaze to the entrance to the palace tower. Or maybe it was something more than just the intuition.

Maeve standing alone at one palatial balcony was watching the glow and the smoke hovering over the city. The spring equinox. One of these evenings during the year when magic and all kind of mystical energy could be felt everywhere. She could not name it but she felt it. In her homeland this night was considered as the night of miracles. Now she knew that the equinox did not cause miracles. Even the accumulation of energy that this night brings could not cause something what she would have considered as a miracle. She heard the singing and joy from the garden but she did not have enough courage to look into that direction. Even though she had dressed the white linen dress as required by Jasmintell custom she did not felt like being a part of the festival. Being a part of common joy. Her heart and body were filled with disappointment and regret. She had been so close to fulfilling her mission and she had not been able to. Yet again she had failed. She had failed her brother, she had failed her master, she had failed him or rather she had failed 'them'.

Why was she failing everyone she cared about? Everyone she loved…

The sorceress heard that someone was walking in and she did not have to turn around to know who it was. She was not mistaken.

Sinbad came closer and when their eyes met she found the same sadness and pain that she felt now. None of them spoke even a word and none words were needed in that pretty moment. After a small smile, they remained silence for quite a while. Since the events in Skull Mountains Maeve had not been really loquacious in the first place. However, his presence was soothing even if no words were spoken. She really wanted to let him soothe her even more. But she knew she could not do that. They both felt like being not in the right place. It was not their day. Because after their winter the spring was not supposed to come. Not yet. And when both of them already felt that they would have not taken it any longer he broke the silence bringing them to their own neutral comfort zone.

"Nice view…" Saying this he leaned elbows on the balcony railing.

"Aya.." From their position the panorama of the city was indeed impressive. And yet again with saying almost nothing he brought her the relief. Talking about nothing was what she needed, that is why she enthusiastically followed.

"Are you able to find your house from here?" She raised an eyebrows challenging him.

Of course he was. The years of experience in navigation immediately led his eyes in the right direction. In his mind, he quickly counted the roofs to track the right object in a few seconds. Sinbad placed his hand on small of her back and with his second hand he pointed the finger at the place where she should look.

"There"

Maeve pulled her cheek so close that almost touched his one, like it would have allowed her to see exactly what he did. She felt his stubble on her skin. She followed into the direction pointed by his finger and finally she found the house as well. Or at least, she thought it was that one. She had been there once, over a year ago. Just after it had been given back to Sinbad after Adina's rescue mission. It had had to be a beautiful merchant mansion but the picture she had seen there was sad. Everything destroyed or stolen after the period it had been confiscated by the vizier. Not really the place you could call home anymore. Most probably that was the reason why Sinbad hardly was visiting it. She had heard once his conversation with Doubar about some family heirloom which had been saved by some neighbors but she had never dare to ask about that. She could not do that knowing she is not able to be fully honest with her past at the first place.

"I think yours would be in pretty much the same direction." He said. "The North, I mean." Adding a moment later to clarify, as it could sound a bit double-edged or suggestive.

Not that this thought had not crossed his mind today. A picture of them celebrating Jasmintell in the garden of the house he had pointed a second ago. Them as a family, hosting friends. But their realty was cruel and far from that picture.

Maeve laughed lightly at his comment. Pretty much the same though crossed her minds. As a woman she added to the picture more details like what she would have changed in that house but general background was the same and disappeared as quick as his, displaced by their brutal reality.

Even though he was not pointing anything anymore, they remained almost in the same position. Still so close that they could almost heard each other's heart's beating. She gently leaned her head on his shoulder and he pulled her even closer with his hand on small of her back. For a while both of them celebrated this moment. When all the other couples had millions of such moments, for them it was one in a million. Not very often they could afford it. They remained silent and close. Feeling each other's warmth. Wavy shadows were dancing on the walls of buildings around and the smell of burning jasmine were fulfilling the panorama in front. Only the two of them. So close, yet so far apart. The singing could be heard from the garden in the distance.

Suddenly Sinbad felt that she was trembling. He looked back at her concerned.

Maeve did not know if it was about the aura around or the mention of home but for the very first time of passed year she felt that she could not manage her emotions anymore. Looking with indifferent eyesight at the city streets she spoke.

"Baghdad. The city connecting the east with the west. I sold my life to get here." Maeve was speaking falteringly. Like all her hidden emotions would suddenly escaped outside. She was almost crying. Something broke in inside her.

Anxious Sinbad was listing to her words and every letter sounded so cold. But he was not able to find any words to answer.

"And here I am in that magic full city, in the night of miracles. But still no matter which way I turn I still can't find what I am looking for. Hearing the happiness from the garden I can't be happy. Why I can't be that way happy? Don't I deserve that?" Her whole body was now trembling and a simple human hysterics appeared on her face.

All this time after Rumina had survived once again, Maeve had been pushing all of her emotions down, distancing herself and everyone else from anything she felt. Distancing even him. But tonight she reached her limits. Today she felt that too. Being jealous that they could not simply celebrate with the others happy couples. Sharing millions of the special moments. That they could not even name themselves as the couples at the first place.

He was still hanging on her every word and his thoughts were like the humming of thousands of bees. But it was the moment when she needed him. To stop her hysteria, he pulled her strongly into an embrace. Without warning, without thinking. Quick, man reaction. She let him do so.

Leading her head on his chest her hysteria turned into the cry. Pure and innocent like the weep of the child. Normally, strong and independent warrior was now crying like a little girl with brushed leg. But her wound was much deeper and much more painful. She was crying as a child and he rocked her in his arms like a child.

He gently stroked her hairs and by almost touching her ear with his lips he whispered, "I will make you happy, I promise"

These words were echoing like a spell. A spell that stopped the time and the whole universe for a while. Maeve raised her tearful eyes to meet his gaze. They both almost held their breaths. They were watching each other for a long time. For a very long time. The red glow of the fire played on their faces. Even teary she still looked beautiful. The white linen dress emphasized her feminine shapes. He didn't know what suddenly made him feel enslaved. Whether it was an aura of Jasmintell or any other mystical energy, Sinbad already knew that he would not be able to control his desire anymore. Maeve felt that, too. That mystical energy. She bit her lips lightly watching him in his new outfit. A tight white shirt rested on his muscular arms. She felt a shiver going through her whole body. She felt loosing herself into the passion.

Suddenly he sighed deeply as if hit by the voice of reason. Like trying to break this spell.

"Maeve, no… it can't happen …" But she put a finger to his lips.

"It is Jasmintell…" She approached slowly, put her hands on his shoulders. Slowly and carefully her forehead touched his chest in the place where the shirt was open. He could feel her breath on his skin. Sinbad closed his eyes, stroking her flaming curls.

"everything can happen…" She finised.

Then Maeve raised her head to look into his eyes. "Only today. This one night. Let it be our Jasmintell. Before the dawn will come to claim our pain again…"

If just a moment ago he still had heard the voice of reason, now he was deaf, dumb and blind. Only she existed. He pulled her even closer that they lips almost met.

"Make me happy…" she whispered before they lost themselves into an impassioned kiss. He kissed her in the smoke of burning jasmine, even though after their winter the spring was not supposed to come. A fire was burning around them and a fire was burning inside them.

They hid in the dark of the chamber to be alone. Far from the festival down in the garden. Far from the whole world to invade upon their sanctuary. Sinbad's fingers were entangled in her hair. He kissed her ear and then the neck, hidden by the curtain of red curls that cascaded against his face. She smelled with the smoke of burned jasmine and with the passion - berries tart, lilac sweet. He was with her. It was their Jasmintell. Giving back the kiss Maeve clung to him, and her smooth fingers slipped under his shirt. Pulling back she gently laid down on the big bed. Following her he knelt beside her he felt as she shuddered under the white dress. Maeve was breathing restlessly.

"Maeve…"

"Please…don't say anything…"

He did not say anything else. Sinbad's fingers gently tickled her feet and ankle before he grabbed the end of the dress and lifted it up. Her hands in return were dealing with his shirt. A few seconds later their all garments where laying on the floor.

A touch of her bare smooth skin electrified his fingers and the inside of his hand. Her nails dig in his back were causing a shiver. The warmth and closeness of his body entailed the heat wave to flow from her feet to the top of her head.

From the outside the sound of music and singing, the sound of joy. In their dark chamber only the breaths. The breaths torn into the thousands of the moans.

The caress and the touch. His. Her. Like trying to learn every inch of each other's body and gasping for air. The shivering and the impatience.

The sliding touches of her slender thighs tightened around his hips like a buckle. Hurriedly trying to share their joy.

The moan. Her. His.

The clasped fingers of the trembling hands.

The cry of pleasure. Her. The groan. His.

And then the silence. The all eternity of silence. Jasmintell.

They laid cuddled together on the bed, their arms wrapped tightly around each other. Their sweaty bodies covered under bed sheet. Yet again celebrating the moment they had stolen. Not one out of million but one in a million. The singing in the garden subsided already. And the jasmine smoke was no longer in the air. Only a cool breeze that was announcing the coming down. The sky was brightening in a frightful pace.

Sinbad pulled Maeve closer as the down was coming to claim their pain again.


End file.
